Beijing hit by heaviest rain in six decades

Flooding in usually dry Beijing has killed at least 10 people.

By
Associated Press /
July 22, 2012

View video

A primary school student in military uniform stands on a stool as he looks for his belongings in the mud after a flood caused by heavy rainfalls, at a military school in Fangshan district of Beijing July 22.

Reuters

View photo

Beijing

The heaviest rain to hit Beijing in six decades killed at least 10 people and left cars and buses submerged, and 10 other storm deaths were reported elsewhere as China braced Sunday for more downpours.

The rain Saturday night knocked down trees in Beijing and trapped cars and buses in waist-deep water in some areas. In Tongzhou district on the capital's eastern outskirts, two people were killed by collapsed roofs, one person was fatally struck by lightning and a fourth was electrocuted by a fallen power line as he helped neighbors escape, the government's Xinhua News Agency said.

Elsewhere, six people were killed by rain-triggered landslides in Sichuan province in the west, Xinhua said, citing disaster officials. Four people died in Shanxi province in the north when their truck was swept away by a rain-swollen river.

On Sunday, the government warned of more storms over the following 24 hours for China's northeast, the port city of Tianjin east of Beijing, Inner Mongolia in the north, Sichuan and neighboring Yunnan province, and Guangdong and Hainan provinces in the southeast.

China suffers flooding and dozens of storm-related deaths every summer rainy season, but such a heavy downpour in relatively dry Beijing is unusual.

On Saturday, the capital's suburban Fangshan district received 460 millimeters (18.4 inches) of rain, breaking a record set in 1951, the weather bureau said. It said suburban Pinggu district got 100.3 millimeters (4 inches) of rain in one hour.

A flash flood in Fangshan stranded 104 primary school students and nine teachers at a military training site, Xinhua said. It said they were in no immediate danger and that rescuers had taken food to them.

At the Beijing airport, 229 domestic and 14 international flights were canceled and more were delayed, the airport authority announced. The Beijing News said some 80,000 travelers were stranded at the airport as of 11:30 p.m. on Saturday.